I am just taking a wild stab here but, I think in the world of this cartoon people who can't bend and need to use weapons are sort of looked down upon in general.

I wouldn't use the words "looked down upon" because they tried to show that everyone is special and has their strengths. But non-benders are definitely inferior when it comes to combat, so they try to compensate with weapons/gimmicks/gadgets. For the most part they still can't fight anywhere near on the same level as benders for extremely obvious reasons, because when you give people the power to manipulate the goddamn ELEMENTS and put them up against people who can't, the winner is sorta already decided. In AtLA the writers realized this and had non-benders fulfill whatever roles they needed to fulfill, showing they can contribute to war just as much with sheer numbers and force. Sokka was the best of the best...well, because he's nothing short of a genius, not your average warrior.

Which is why I found LoK to be hilarious because the writers tried to show that chi-blockers were just as powerful as benders, which is unbelievable because there was absolutely nothing stopping benders from learning chi-blocking themselves. Chi-blocking was something any fit person could learn. Actually benders would be in an even better position since they are already familiar with martial arts.

The combat strategy of all chi-blockers and even Amon went something like this:

It's weird that nobody ever considered changing how they were bending. I mean, fire infront of the enemy and they'll dodge "into" your attack, if that's too much to hope for, create a sort of elemental shield around you..

a chi-blocker isn't going to make his way through a suit of rock armour is he? :s

It's weird that nobody ever considered changing how they were bending. I mean, fire infront of the enemy and they'll dodge "into" your attack, if that's too much to hope for, create a sort of elemental shield around you..

a chi-blocker isn't going to make his way through a suit of rock armour is he? :s

i was just rewatching some random episodes of korra (mainly the ending though) and when korra was looking over the cliff, something dawned on me. her controlling the avatar state makes sense all of the sudden.

it's not deus ex at all, it's just very very very well hidden subtext (bit too well hidden if you ask me). if you look for it you can see that korra slowly DOES become spiritual throughout the series, not through any of the traditional means no, but rather through her character development being limited to certain key emotional problems and then getting past them.....

these problems sync with what blocks the chakras

over the course of the series she unlocks her chakras without any help, guidance, or even instruction from someone else (looking at you tenzin, how could you neglect such an important section of her training?) though (like other things such as her bending style) she does it kinda sloppy. she goes through her trials out of order for what the chakras are, but even so they still unlock regardless of the order.

she started in episode two where she couldn't perform the leaf exercise (i have no idea what that thing is actually called so yeah) where her frustration exploded outward and she started blaming tenzin for everyting, for her not understanding, for her failing the exercise and even started telling herself that she couldn't learn not only because he was a "terrible teacher" but also because she didn't need it. these lies that she had been telling herself clouded her judgement, but when all the cards were on the table, she finally figured out how to move like a natural airbender and then realized that everything she had said had been a lie, forgiving tenzin and then apologizing for everything, realizing the truth that she could get it. thus unlocking her sound chakra first.

episode 3 was merely her learning about her surroundings and what problems faced her. episode 4 however, was an entirely different story. this entire episode had one main theme, facing your fears. when she finally comes to terms at the end of the episode she has unlocked the earth chakra. (i believe this is also why she was suddenly able to see fragmented visions, it all happened around the same time)

episode 5 as we all well know was the main love triangle episode where she confessed her feelings and kissed mako, realizing the fealing of love unlocked her air chakra. (the grief came from watching mako be with asami rather than her and from hurting bolin like she did)

her next one came in episode 8 when she felt responsible (or guilty) for letting tarlok get out of control and especially when it put her friends at risk. nothing gave her the pleasure needed to unlock the water chakra like beating tarlok's face in for a bit. (even if she did get captured)

the next one is debatible as to whether it comes in episode 9 or 11, but i would say 9 as that is the first big reveal. she searches deep inside herself to find aang's memories, hoping for a clue as to the dangers ahead. aang reveals the battle with yakone and she realizes that tarlok is his son, this insight dispelled all previous illusions that she may have had about blood bending and tarlok. I say this could also be 11 though because the same can be said for her realizing that nothing about the revolution is real, that the whole pretense was an illusion created by amon which she then used against him. light chakra, check.

next was the fire chakra, and sense this one was holding all the others back (even with the light chakra being debatable, by this point she had one chakra left and all that energy was rushing when this unlocked) this is when she unlocked airbending. her unstopable force of willpower to protect mako from amon unlocked this chakra and basicly at that point it was a dam bursting over the other 3 chakras she had unlocked that were supposed to come after this one. which is why she suddenly could airbend.

the last one is when she was looking over the cliff at the end, it was pretty obvious that she was supposed to be contemplating suicide due to everything that happened to her. but remember, the thought chakra is stopped by earthly attachment so if you are contemplating that seriously, even if she wasn't able to do it, she still had thrown away her earthly attachments. and at that moment she had achieved all that was required to be able to use the avatar state (which we know by now negates blood bending)

anyway on another note, i just realized that aang is the only avatar that we know of that went into the avatar state in it's uncontrollable form (i don't count roku since he did that while being trained to control it, plus i believe it was his first time using it, and he also cheated) and not only was he the only one, he did it multiple times at that...

Originally Posted by ohshift

Mess with someone's head enough, you can turn a scared little kid into an all powerful bitch.

only two things are infinite the universe, and human stupidity,
and i'm not too sure about the universe -Albert Einstein

Hmm... good theory, although like you said, it was pretty well hidden. Too well hidden.

yeah there's things to be said for having a hidden meaning behind a series but when you have to really dig and almost no one gets it almost a year later then you are doing a bit too much to keep it hidden.

honestly i'm surprised i came up with this, this is the first year i have successfully done the 24 hour challenge on new years and i still have yet to go to bed. i came up with this right around 8... when i had finished the challenge and should have gone to bed, you know how it goes when your brain suddenly goes into hyperdrive and you have to do things suddenly.

Originally Posted by ohshift

Mess with someone's head enough, you can turn a scared little kid into an all powerful bitch.

only two things are infinite the universe, and human stupidity,
and i'm not too sure about the universe -Albert Einstein

Just saw this on IMDB. Will there be a second season? "Yes. Nickelodeon has ordered books 2, 3 and 4, making a total of 52 episodes. The book two has no air date yet, but its name will be "Spirits"." That means 3 more seasons are coming.

Just saw this on IMDB. Will there be a second season? "Yes. Nickelodeon has ordered books 2, 3 and 4, making a total of 52 episodes. The book two has no air date yet, but its name will be "Spirits"." That means 3 more seasons are coming.

Certainly, further seasons are coming. No clue when though.

The writers/directors will have plenty of time to mull things over and think things through :P

over the course of the series she unlocks her chakras without any help, guidance, or even instruction from someone else (looking at you tenzin, how could you neglect such an important section of her training?) though (like other things such as her bending style) she does it kinda sloppy. she goes through her trials out of order for what the chakras are, but even so they still unlock regardless of the order.

Well. Don't blame Tenzin lol, he was just teaching her airbending, and I doubt he even knew that chakra stuff. The Guru taught that to Aang, it's not like it was some common airbender knowledge.

Originally Posted by ranku

anyway on another note, i just realized that aang is the only avatar that we know of that went into the avatar state in it's uncontrollable form

I always attributed that to Aang being young and immature. Every other avatar wasn't even told they were the Avatar until Age 16. And it's not like they all had super bad experiences that called for crazy emotion. ($10 says that guy whose wife got eaten by the face stealer spirit had a rage-avatar state moment.) Even if they did, we just never saw it lol, we only know about like 5-6? avatars in the whole Avatar World.

Can I just be put to rest, that was so fucking amazing. I'm satisfied with life after knowing someone as you could explain that. It's a really good theory, in fact it was a bit more than good but that's besides the point. The chakras were always interesting and honestly if the creators came out saying that this was the reason all the shit happened at the end, then I'd be happy with the ending... Except they could have made Korra's battle at the end with Noatok a bit more interesting.

Thanks for explaining that way better than I ever could. For me it didn't seem odd that she could control the avatar state at the end, I thought she had grown a lot throughout the season... but I didn't know how to explain it all